Avis London gets on its (electric) bike 18 December 2007  VES had previously worked with Avis for just over three years, before tendering to become the service provider for vehicle preparation, delivery and collection, and site transfer. As part of its tender, VES proposed that Avis became the first rental company to substitute petrol-driven bikes with electric-powered vehicles in London, to minimise pollution. VES invested in buying additional batteries and charging equipment to minimise downtime and ensure optimum use of the electric bikes. As with the existing 2-stroke petrol Hopper Bikes on the VES fleet, used for delivery and collection around London, the new electric versions are easily collapsible for stowage in the boot of a car. They are equally robust and reliable. The electric bikes are ideal for use within the M25 radius, with an optimum range of 20 miles before requiring recharging. Currently 40% of Avis’ London deliveries, operating out of Park Royal, Euston, Mayfair, Earls Court, Waterloo, Tower Bridge, London City Airport and Croydon, are fulfilled using the electric bikes and this is set to increase next year. Steve Davidson, City Manager, London, Avis says: “When VES suggested the service we were all for it, as we are committed to reducing pollution and improving our carbon footprint wherever possible throughout the company. The electric bikes have been even more reliable than anticipated and the service is working extremely well.” Avis has been working with The CarbonNeutral® Company for the last eight years and was the first European car rental company to become carbon neutral, offsetting 94,500 tonnes of CO2 since 2000. Avis customers can offset their car rental emissions online at www.avis.co.uk for just £1 – last year 23% more customers chose to do so. Earlier this year Avis added 20 Prius vehicles to its UK fleet, following in the footsteps of Avis Germany’s introduction of natural gas VW Tourans. In 2005 Avis Portugal reduced its CO2 emissions by over 50 tonnes, thanks in part to the introduction of 50 hybrids. Scandinavia also offers its customers the option of renting one of over 400 ethanol-powered vehicles |
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Avis Car Rental go green on our Quando electric bikes
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Descend Hamsterley: Down 'n' Out Winter Series
Round 1 15th/16th December
Lloyd and Tom (i.e. workshop grease monkeys) are both avid mountain bikers.
We headed up to Hamsterley to race Downhill. The idea was to try and gain enough points to race the National Downhill Mountain bike series in 2008. Neither of us have done much riding lately and were a bit scared of what might happen.
Saturday was an early start heading from Nottingham. The team comprising of Lloyd, Tom and Dan (fellow downhill nut). It was bitterly cold as we did the first walkthrough of the course to have a good look before trying to ride it. So cold in fact that the ground was frozen solid in quite a few places! The top looked fine but there were a few sections down the bottom that had us arguing over lines and the best way to ride it. Not to be deterred we headed back up and got out the bikes and started doing some practice runs.
All went well as none of us fell off to badly, however the same could not be said for others. Traffic jams were starting to form on the lower section of the course where the harder riding was causing lots of people to crash heavily. We heard someone had broken their arm at one point but as communication was by word of mouth only I can't really confirm or deny. Practice shut around 3pm and then it was time to have some fun.
We had cobbled together a selection of Electric bikes to buzz around the pits on during the weekend. Two Fortes and a Quando. The urge was too strong for us to resist and we ended up going down the downhill course on the rigid electric bikes! GREAT FUN! The little electric bikes eat up everything the top section of the course could throw at them .. jumps, drops and roots! It was MUCH harder on bikes with no suspension and slick tires and eventually the course won out when Dan and I crashed quite heavily and it was decided to give it up for the evening.
We headed into the nearest local town for a meal at a pub where Dan came out with the comment of the trip ..."They have a lots of Beer here!" Not really that surprising for a PUB!
Back to the forest for overnight camping and temperatures overnight were down to around minus 5! It made getting up for the next days racing a bit of a struggle! Brrrrrrrrrrr!
Anyway one last practice before the racing got underway and they had made some changes to the course. A lot of people had been crashing the day before so the decision was made to try and make it a little easier. People were still crashing in this last practice session so after airlifting someone off the hill they changed the course again! Extra practice was given on the new changes and the race reduced from two runs to the single chance at glory!
During this extra practice we all had our first major crashes of the weekend, I went over the bars twice breaking my front brake lever (nothing some zip ties and some gaffer tape can't fix!). Dan and Lloyd both parting company with their bikes at least once but no injuries sustained.
However the race was upon us and Dan led off looking good last time I saw him and he did very well coming 10th Junior.
I had a poor race run coming to a complete stop twice finding some extra changes to the course after last practice. I ended up 15th in the Masters.
Lloyd had a disappointing race run and finished 14th in the Seniors.
Final results:
10 Dan Coggan Junior 2:06.558
15 Tom Gilfedder Masters 2:26.628
14 Lloyd Clarkson Senior 2: 07.573
Dan secured 5 British Cycling points (enough for entry into next years National Points Series)
Lloyd 2 points
Tom 1 point (Taking my total to 4 for the year, only 1 more to get!)
Not bad for a first hit out on an unfamiliar course in the cold. Hopes are high for a better performance next time!
Tom!
Links
Descend Hamsterley site
50cycles Electric Bikes
Lloyd and Tom (i.e. workshop grease monkeys) are both avid mountain bikers.
We headed up to Hamsterley to race Downhill. The idea was to try and gain enough points to race the National Downhill Mountain bike series in 2008. Neither of us have done much riding lately and were a bit scared of what might happen.
Saturday was an early start heading from Nottingham. The team comprising of Lloyd, Tom and Dan (fellow downhill nut). It was bitterly cold as we did the first walkthrough of the course to have a good look before trying to ride it. So cold in fact that the ground was frozen solid in quite a few places! The top looked fine but there were a few sections down the bottom that had us arguing over lines and the best way to ride it. Not to be deterred we headed back up and got out the bikes and started doing some practice runs.
All went well as none of us fell off to badly, however the same could not be said for others. Traffic jams were starting to form on the lower section of the course where the harder riding was causing lots of people to crash heavily. We heard someone had broken their arm at one point but as communication was by word of mouth only I can't really confirm or deny. Practice shut around 3pm and then it was time to have some fun.
We had cobbled together a selection of Electric bikes to buzz around the pits on during the weekend. Two Fortes and a Quando. The urge was too strong for us to resist and we ended up going down the downhill course on the rigid electric bikes! GREAT FUN! The little electric bikes eat up everything the top section of the course could throw at them .. jumps, drops and roots! It was MUCH harder on bikes with no suspension and slick tires and eventually the course won out when Dan and I crashed quite heavily and it was decided to give it up for the evening.
We headed into the nearest local town for a meal at a pub where Dan came out with the comment of the trip ..."They have a lots of Beer here!" Not really that surprising for a PUB!
Back to the forest for overnight camping and temperatures overnight were down to around minus 5! It made getting up for the next days racing a bit of a struggle! Brrrrrrrrrrr!
Anyway one last practice before the racing got underway and they had made some changes to the course. A lot of people had been crashing the day before so the decision was made to try and make it a little easier. People were still crashing in this last practice session so after airlifting someone off the hill they changed the course again! Extra practice was given on the new changes and the race reduced from two runs to the single chance at glory!
During this extra practice we all had our first major crashes of the weekend, I went over the bars twice breaking my front brake lever (nothing some zip ties and some gaffer tape can't fix!). Dan and Lloyd both parting company with their bikes at least once but no injuries sustained.
However the race was upon us and Dan led off looking good last time I saw him and he did very well coming 10th Junior.
I had a poor race run coming to a complete stop twice finding some extra changes to the course after last practice. I ended up 15th in the Masters.
Lloyd had a disappointing race run and finished 14th in the Seniors.
Final results:
10 Dan Coggan Junior 2:06.558
15 Tom Gilfedder Masters 2:26.628
14 Lloyd Clarkson Senior 2: 07.573
Dan secured 5 British Cycling points (enough for entry into next years National Points Series)
Lloyd 2 points
Tom 1 point (Taking my total to 4 for the year, only 1 more to get!)
Not bad for a first hit out on an unfamiliar course in the cold. Hopes are high for a better performance next time!
Tom!
Links
Descend Hamsterley site
50cycles Electric Bikes
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